“NOT NOW”

HOW DISCOURSE ON THE UNACOMMPANIED MINOR CRISIS FAILS TO

RECOGNIZE THE PAST & FUTURE

Politics & Culture 21st Century US

LAX041M10

10 Credits

3 November 2017

2489 Words
 1

“This is a humanitarian crisis and it needs a humanitarian response,” said Senator Barbara

Mikulski in an interview after unprecedented numbers of unaccompanied minors crossed the

US-Mexico border in 2014.1 By September that year more children had been apprehended

than in the whole fiscal year of 2013. In addition to the minors from Mexico who already

came in great numbers prior to 2014, there was a huge influx of children coming from

Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. As a result the Migration Policy Institute reported,

“this breakdown represents a significant shift;” it is a dramatic surge that “has deep roots and

no simple solutions.”2 The media and the public used crisis discourse to pressure the Obama

Administration to act immediately. On June 20th Obama presented a fact sheet on

immigration, outlining the steps the Administration would take.3 Obama addressed the nation

again on July 9th, saying, “We need to … address the humanitarian situation on the border.”4

The adoption of a crisis frame, according to Foucault, is a means to transgress as well

as a means to necessitate change or transformation.5 Moreover, when the situation displays a

humanitarian emergency, like the situation of the unaccompanied migrating minors, the

change is urgent, moral and crucial. In this case, the surge in unaccompanied minors

migrating from Central America shows how crisis discourse in humanitarian situations

stimulates an ‘immediate presence,’ in which “time contracts and one inhabits the present as

intimately as possible.”6 In this paper, I argue that this ‘immediate presence’ suspends both

1
Richard Cowan, “Waves of immigrant minors present crisis for Obama, Congress,” Reuters, May 28, 2014,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-children/waves-of-immigrant-minors-present-crisis-for-
obama-congress-idUSKBN0E814T20140528.
2
Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman, “Dramatic Surge in the Arrival of Unaccompanied Children Has Deep
Roots and No Simple Solutions,” Migration Policy Institute, June 13, 2014,
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dramatic-surge-arrival-unaccompanied-children-has-deep-roots-and-no-
simple-solutions.
3
“Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Children from Central America,” Office of the Press Secretary, June 20, 2014,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/fact-sheet-unaccompanied-children-central-
america.
4
Barack Obama, “Statement by the President on Immigration,” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary,
July 19, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/09/statement-president-
immigration.
5
Matan Oram, Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault: The Totality of Reason (Routledge:
New York and London, 2017): 67.
6
Peter Redfield, “Doctors, Borders, and Life in Crisis,” Peace Research Abstracts Journal 43, no. 1 (2006): 32.
 2

the past and the future, because of the urgent need to address the situation now. Building upon

Roitman’s statement that crisis discourse “enables a blind spot,” this paper shows that people

tend to forget asking “why crisis now?”7 Focusing on “what went wrong?” nobody looked at

the history that may have caused the unaccompanied minor migration. Moreover, once the

numbers slightly decreased, the humanitarian crisis frame seemed inapplicable. Consequently,

once the numbers rose again in 2015, nobody noticed.

This essay is structured as follows. First, it outlines theories on crisis discourse and,

more specifically, on humanitarian crisis discourse. The theories of Roitman and Redfield will

be taken as a starting point. Second, it will analyse the situation in 2014, as well as the

adoption and consequences of the crisis narrative. To then discuss the effects of the

‘immediate presence’ in crisis discourse; how it omits asking questions about both the past

and the future. The essay ends with conclusions.

Theory of crisis discourse provides important insights into the use of the word ‘crisis’

and its effects. Roitman is in particular known for her critique on crisis discourse. In her

essay, with the self-explanatory title ‘Crisis,’ she follows Koselleck’s investigation in the

origins of the word.8 Koselleck’s conclusion is that “the concept of crisis, which once had the

power to pose unavoidable, harsh and non-negotiable alternatives, has been transformed to fit

the uncertainties of whatever might be favoured at a given moment.”9 Roitman continues this

line of thinking and eventually defines crisis as “a judgement [that] has been made by which

the present is deemed to be at odds with an alternative and more normal situation.”10 Another

prominent argument in her essay is that when certain situations are framed in crisis

terminology, “the grounds for knowledge of crisis are neither questioned or made explicit.”11

7
Janet Roitman, “Crisis,” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon, https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-
crisis/.
8
Ibid.
9
Reinhart Koselleck, “Crisis,” Journal of the History of Ideas 67, no. 2 (2006): 399.
10
Janet Roitman. “Anti-Crisis,” Risk & Research (2015): 4.
11
Janet Roitman, Anti-Crisis (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2013): 569.
 3

In the eyes of Roitman, this poses problems. Crisis discourse enables a blind spot, because

people solely ask, “what went wrong?” and forget to ask other pressing questions like “why

crisis now?”12 The latter question will prove to be interesting in the light of the

unaccompanied minor surge in 2014.

However, the 2014 situation was not merely called a crisis; it was a humanitarian

crisis. A thoughtful article by Redfield discusses the use of the ‘humanitarian crisis’ frame by

humanitarian organisations. Redfield wrote that a humanitarian emergency “is both a potential

historical event and a historical deferment; a rupture that marks time indelibly yet stands

outside it in a state of exception.” This eventually puts great weight on the acting

Administration. According to Redfield, “not acting takes on new significance … if one has a

capacity to act.”13 In short, the label of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ demands an immediate

response to the situation.

Migration institutes, newspapers and eventually the Obama Administration framed the

2014 situation as a crisis. Articles depicted images of migrating children with titles as “Surge

in Child Migrants Reaches New York, Overwhelming Advocates,” or more bluntly

“Immigration Crisis: 1,000 Migrant Children Headed to Arizona Shelter.”14 The high

numbers presented in the articles were affirmed by the Migration Policy Institute in June. The

Administration had failed to anticipate to increasing amounts of migrating children and did

not possess sufficient resources. It was unable to detain and house all 58.000 children, so

children were placed in military bases and border patrol stations.15 Consequently, the media

12
Janet Roitman, “Crisis,” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon, https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-
crisis/.
13
Peter Redfield, “Doctors, Borders, and Life in Crisis,” Peace Research Abstracts Journal 43, no. 1 (2006):
337.
14
Cindy Carcamo, “Immigration Crisis: 1,000 Migrant Children Headed to Arizona Shelter,” Los Angeles Times,
June 7, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ff-immigration-migrant-children-20140607-
story.html; Kirki Semple, “Surge in Child Migrants Reaches New York, Overwhelming Advocates,” New York
Times, June 17, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/nyregion/immigration-child-migrant-surge-in-New-
York-City.html
15
“Five Fast Facts about Unaccompanied Children and the 2014 Border Crisis and Three Ways You Can Make a
Difference,” CFJC Northwestern Law Clinic,
 4

pressured the Obama Administration to take measures to protect the children. The

Administration initiated field hearings named “Crisis on the Texas Border: Surge of

Unaccompanied Minors.”16 During the hearings, testimonies of Judges and Bishops explicitly

describe the situation as a humanitarian crisis.17 Furthermore, the Hidalgo County Judge

humanized the situation when she described how a frightened, hungry, thirsty 11-year old boy

wandered alone and died less than a quarter mile away from help.18

These groups naming the situation a humanitarian crisis are, according to Roitman,

“both demanding a moment of truth and demarcating an opportunity to revert to the proper

course of history.”19 The Obama Administration was morally obliged to respond to the

situation.”20 As a result, multiple programs were initiated. On June 20th Obama announced

new partnerships with the Central American countries. The Administration would provide

money for programs, which had to improve citizen security and prevent crime and violence.

Additionally, the Administration increased the enforcement by ICE and started campaigns to

help migrants understand the dangers of smugglers and the requirements for asylum and

DACA.21 Another important solution was initiated in November that year; the Central

American Minor Refugee Program (CAM). This was an in-country processing policy, which

would discourage minors to make the hazardous journey from their home country to the US

by themselves. CAM made it possible for children to apply for refugee status while residing

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/cfjc/documents/CFJC%20Newsletter%20Article%20final.pdf,
accessed April 11, 2018.
16
Field Hearing on Crisis on the Texas Border: Surge of Unaccompanied Minors, US House Committee on
Homeland Security, July 3, 2014, McAllen (TX),
http://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=102439.
17
Ibid.
18
Garcia, Ramon. “Statement” in Field Hearing on Crisis on the Texas Border: Surge of Unaccompanied
Minors, US House Committee on Homeland Security, July 3, 2014, McAllen (TX),
http://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=102439.
19
Janet Roitman, “Crisis,” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon, https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-
crisis/.
20
Peter Redfield, “Doctors, Borders, and Life in Crisis,” Peace Research Abstracts Journal 43, no. 1 (2006):
337.
21
“Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Children from Central America,” Office of the Press Secretary, June 20, 2014,
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/fact-sheet-unaccompanied-children-central-
america.
 5

in their home country. The program is an example of the consequences of crisis discourse,

because it was initiated by the executive branch. Roitman had already pointed towards this

possibility, stating “the invocation of crisis served to legitimate the abridgment of

constitutional rights and the institutionalization of extra-juridical executive powers.”22

However, Roitman critiques this direct initiating of policies, because “throughout the

narratives of struggle and proliferating values, of uncertain futures and contradictions, crisis

itself is never challenged.”23 The question must be asked “Why crisis now?”24 Researching

the situation shows that even though the influx of child migrants was a new phenomenon to

the US, Central American migration was not. The history of Central America explains the

current instabilities of the countries, and shows how the US was involved. Immigration to the

US began in the 1980s, because the Central America countries were haunted by civil wars,

political and economic instabilities. Moreover, immigrants were accepted in greater numbers

since the Carter Administration adopted the 1980 Refugee Act.25 This eventually turned out

be a ground upon which unaccompanied minors could be admitted into the US.26 By 2015, the

Central American population had grown nearly tenfold by 2015. This shows that the

unaccompanied minor crisis is a part of a greater Central American migration crisis, although

this was not often mentioned. It also proves Koselleck’s statement that “when two crises cross

each other … the stronger consumes the weaker.”27 Nonetheless, the question still rises why

all these people wanted to flee their home countries. Therefore, this paper will discuss the

history of the Central American countries relevant to migration, focussing on the three new

migrating countries that caused the crisis: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

22
Janet Roitman, Anti-Crisis (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2013): 569.
23
Ibid., 64.
24
Janet Roitman, “Crisis,” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon, https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-
crisis/.
25
Kenneth D. Brill, “The Endless Debate: Refugees Law and Policy and the 1980 Refugee Act,” Cleveland State
Law Review 32, no. 1 (1983): 119.
26
Daniel J. Steinbock, “The Admission of Unaccompanied Children into the United States,” Yale Law & Policy
Review 7, no. 1 (1989): 138.
27
Reinhart Koselleck, “Crisis,” Journal of the History of Ideas 67, no. 2 (2006): 387.
 6

During the 1980s El Salvador was struggling to fight the upcoming leftist Farabundo

Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in the civil war.28 Consequently, they became the

main receiver of US foreign aid in Latin America. The US supported the Ávila of the

conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which in turn backed the US in Iraq

and helped implementing a free trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican

Republic. Politicians and military leaders often describe the war as “an example of a

counterinsurgency war won at arm’s length.”29 Meanwhile, the US sponsored terroristic

repression of civilians supporting the left. In 1992 a peace agreement was eventually signed,

shortly after the end of the Cold War. Afterwards, the US focused on inaugurating a

democratic government and reforming the economy, but they were not able to address the

growing inequality, violence and corruption.30 Currently, the opposition between the FMLN

and ARENA, which dates back to the civil war, is still the main cause for economic

instability, political stagnation and violence.31

In Guatemala tensions cumulated in 1982 when Rios Montt came to power. However,

the civil war had begun long before. In the 1960s the US already equipped and trained

Guatemalan security forces for the civil war. Similar to El Salvador, these forces brutally

supressed leftist civilians. From 1982-1983 Montt acted as a dictator and was later convicted

for crimes against humanity and genocide.32 It is still disputed whether the US helped to

finance his crimes. The Central American Program Director at the Washington Office for

Latin America (WOLA) said, “Direct U.S. military aid was suspended during the Carter

Administration, but then restored by the Reagan Administration, whose Cold War worldview

28
Clare R. Seelke and Peter J. Meyer, “El Salvador: Political, Economic, and Social Conditions and U.S.
Relations,” Congressional Research Service, June 8, 2009: Summary.
29
Mark Peceny and William Stanley. "Counterinsurgency in El Salvador." Politics & Society 38, no. 1 (2010):
68.
30
Clare R. Seelke and Peter J. Meyer, “El Salvador: Political, Economic, and Social Conditions and U.S.
Relations,” Congressional Research Service, June 8, 2009: Summary.
31
Clare R. Seelke, “El Salvador: Background and U.S. Relations.” Congressional Research Service, March 18,
2017: 4.
32
Maureen Taft-Morales, “Guatemala: Political, Security, and SocioEconomic Conditions and U.S. Relations,”
Congressional Research Service, August 7, 2014: Summary.
 7

clearly prioritized the fight against insurgents and their civilian supporters over respect for

human rights.”33 While a democratic government was established in 1986, the violent civil

war did not end before 1996. Many improvements have been made, but criminality, drug

trafficking, corruption and excessive poverty stand in the way of social and political

development.34 Clearly, Guatemala was still recovering from the civil war and unable to

already address the hazardous situation in 2014.

In Honduras the situation was different from El Salvador and Guatemala, because

there was no civil war on display. Nonetheless, the militarily controlled government pursued

tough anti-communist politics, violating many human rights.35 This military dictatorship

ended in 1982 and was replaced by a civilian-led government. Meanwhile, during the 1980s

Honduras proved worthy to the US as a staging area “for U.S.-supported excursions into

Nicaragua by the Contra forces attempting to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government.”36

Additionally, since economic ties were strengthened, Honduras became increasingly

dependent on the world economy, especially on the US. Consequently, the country got hit

hard by the financial crisis of 2008. A year later, in 2009, the country experienced another

state of emergency after the military removed and exiled president Zelaya to protect the

constitution. The Obama Administration ordered diplomatic and economic sanctions. In 2010

a new president was inaugurated, but the mess was not yet cleaned up.37 A program associate

at the WOLA stated, “After the 2009 coup, the government essentially stopped functioning in

rural areas where organized crime took hold and cocaine shipments started arriving in larger

numbers. This prompted even more US anti-drug assistance. Then, as institutions hollowed

33
Santiago Wills, “Did Reagan Finance Genocide in Guatemala?” ABC News, May 14, 2013,
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/ronald-reagan-finance-genocide-guatemala/story?id=19179627.
34
Maureen Taft-Morales, “Guatemala: Political, Security, and SocioEconomic Conditions and U.S. Relations,”
Congressional Research Service, August 7, 2014: 1.
35
Peter J. Meyer, “Honduran-U.S. Relations,” Congressional Research Service, July 25, 2012: 1.
36
Ibid., 18.
37
Ibid., 19.
 8

out and became corrupted, gang activity increased and the United States got a wave of

migrants. An unstable Honduras will mean more of this.”38

In short, the history of Central American instability is related to current violence and

extreme poverty and inequalities. These are also the three main reasons for children to

migrate alone, as found by UNICEF. A fourth reason for travelling to the US is family

reunification, which in turn is linked to the situation in Central America in the last decades.39

When addressing the humanitarian situation, Obama did not take the history into account. He

only mentioned that what “has really caused a spike is the significant security challenges in

these Central American countries themselves and the fact that you’ve got smugglers.”40

Additionally, it was not commented on in the Field Hearings and it was almost never

discussed in newspaper articles. In 2014, humanitarian crisis discourse thus enabled a “blind

spot for the production of knowledge,” since there was a sole focus on the present.41

This focus also posed another challenge. The presentation of a humanitarian situation

demanded immediate action, obscuring any long-term evaluations. When the numbers of

unaccompanied minors crossing the border seemed to diminish in the first half of 2015, the

public came to believe that the crisis situation was over. However, numbers have been rising

again since the second half of 2015. In fiscal year 2017 the number of apprehensions were

only one per cent lower than in ‘crisis’ year 2014.42 Even though the humanitarian situation

was not resolved, the situation became ‘normal’ in 2015 and the public displayed no acute

desire for action. This public disregard can be explained by the indifference of the media after

38
Sarah Kinosian, “Crisis of Honduras Democracy Has Roots in US Tacit Support for 2009 Coup,” The
Guardian, December 7, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-
has-roots-in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup.
39
Patrick Moser, “Broken Dreams: Central American Children’s Dangerous Journey to the United States,”
UNICEF Child Alert, august 2016.
40
Barack Obama, “Statement by the President on Immigration,” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary,
July 19, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/09/statement-president-
immigration.
41
Janet Roitman, “Crisis,” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon, https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-
crisis/.
42
“Southwest Border Migration FY2018,” US Customs and Border Protection, April 4, 2018,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration.
 9

2014. On multiple newspaper websites I entered the search-term “unaccompanied minors” in

their databases. The result (see figure 1) signifies the attention span of media during the

humanitarian situation. The number of hits on the search-term increased from 34 in 2013 to

1153 in 2014, whereas in 2017 the number barely reached 400. This is all in accordance with

Roitman’s argument that “crisis narratives signify what counts as an event and thus establish a

temporality upon which one can act.”43 2017 was not signified as such an event and thus

could not demand any political humanitarian action.

In all, the 2014 situation shows that humanitarian crisis discourse prioritizes the

present over the past and the future. The label of ‘humanitarian crisis’ on the unaccompanied

minor surge led to the belief that 2014 was a truly exceptional year and that there was an

alternative, preferred situation possible. Since no attention was given to the situation after

2014, it looked like the preferred situation was established. However, in 2017 the numbers

and situations of unaccompanied minors crossing the border were similar to those in 2014.

The difference was that in 2014 the country could not handle the number of minors crossing

the border, while in 2017 they had more capacity to detain and house the children. It would

have been more fitting to call the situation an ‘apprehension crisis.’ Moreover, the label also

overstates the importance of some events, while obscuring others. Nobody had asked “Why

now?” even though this question might have better explained the surge in 2014. The 1980s

Central American crisis, in-state democratic crises and the financial crisis of 2008, all

partially caused the movement of unaccompanied children. Not many researchers have

discussed this interrelation of crises, and neither did the public. To actually explain and/or

address the root causes of the flow of unaccompanied minors, dominant narratives of crisis

must be challenged and researched. Especially since humanitarian crisis discourse puts

pressure on the present, fails to foresee the future and overlooks occurrences in the old days.

43
Marion Werner, Global Displacements: The Making of Uneven Development in the Caribbean (Hoboken:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2015): 164.
 10

Figure 1

Newspaper Articles on 'Unaccompanied

Minors'
1400
Number of hits on search term "unaccompanied

1200

1000
New York Daily News
800
Washington Post
minors"

Chicago Tribune
600
Houston Chronicle
400 Tampa Bay Times
Total
200

0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Year
 11

Bibliography

Brill, Kenneth D. “The Endless Debate: Refugees Law and Policy and the 1980 Refugee

Act.” Cleveland State Law Review 32, no. 1 (1983): 117-74.

Carcamo, Cindy. “Immigration Crisis: 1,000 Migrant Children Headed to Arizona Shelter.”

Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ff-

immigration-migrant-children-20140607-story.html.

Cowan, Richard. “Waves of immigrant minors present crisis for Obama, Congress.” Reuters,

May 28, 2014. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-children/waves-of-

immigrant-minors-present-crisis-for-obama-congress-idUSKBN0E814T20140528.

Chishti, Muzaffar and Faye Hipsman. “Dramatic Surge in the Arrival of Unaccompanied

Children Has Deep Roots and No Simple Solutions.” Migration Policy Institute, June 13,

2014. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dramatic-surge-arrival-unaccompanied-

children-has-deep-roots-and-no-simple-solutions.

“Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Children from Central America.” Office of the Press Secretary,

June 20, 2014. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/fact-

sheet-unaccompanied-children-central-america.

“Five Fast Facts about Unaccompanied Children and the 2014 Border Crisis and Three Ways

You Can Make a Difference.” CFJC Northwestern Law Clinic.

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/cfjc/documents/CFJC%20Newsletter%20Arti

cle%20final.pdf. Accessed April 11, 2018.

Field Hearing on Crisis on the Texas Border: Surge of Unaccompanied Minors. US House

Committee on Homeland Security, July 3, 2014, McAllen (TX).

http://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=102439.
 12

Kinosian, Sarah. “Crisis of Honduras Democracy Has Roots in US Tacit Support for 2009

Coup.” The Guardian, December 7, 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/crisis-of-honduras-democracy-has-roots-

in-us-tacit-support-for-2009-coup.

Koselleck, Reinhart. “Crisis.” Journal of the History of Ideas 67, no. 2 (2006): 357-400

Mbembe, Achille, and Janet Lee Roitman. "Figures of the Subject in Times of Crisis." Public

Culture : Society for Transnational Cultural Studies 7 (1995): 323-52.

Meyer, Peter J. “Honduran-U.S. Relations.” Congressional Research Service, July 25, 2012.

Moser, Patrick. “Broken Dreams: Central American children’s dangerous journey to the

United States.” UNICEF Child Alert, august 2016.

Obama, Barack. “Statement by the President on Immigration.” The White House, Office of the

Press Secretary, July 19, 2014. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-

office/2014/07/09/statement-president-immigration.

Oram, Matan. Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault: The Totality of

Reason. Routledge: New York and London, 2017.

Peceny, Mark, and William Stanley. "Counterinsurgency in El Salvador." Politics &

Society 38, no. 1 (2010): 67-94.

Roitman, Janet. “Anti-Crisis.” Risk & Research (2015): 4-5.

--. Anti-Crisis. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2013.

--. “Crisis.” Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon.

https://www.politicalconcepts.org/roitman-crisis/.

Redfield, Peter. "Doctors, Borders, and Life in Crisis." Peace Research Abstracts Journal 43,

no. 1 (2006).

Seelke, Clare R. and Peter J. Meyer. “El Salvador: Political, Economic, and Social

Conditions and U.S. Relations.” Congressional Research Service, June 8, 2009.

 13

Seelke, Clare R. “El Salvador: Background and U.S. Relations.” Congressional Research

Service, March 18, 2017.

Semple, Kirki. “Surge in Child Migrants Reaches New York, Overwhelming Advocates.”

New York Times, June 17, 2014.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/nyregion/immigration-child-migrant-surge-in-New-

York-City.html.

Steinbock, Daniel J. “The Admission of Unaccompanied Children into the United

States.” Yale Law & Policy Review 7, no. 1. (1989): 137-200.

“Southwest Border Migration FY2018.” US Customs and Border Protection, April 4, 2018.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration.

Taft-Morales, Maureen. “Guatemala: Political, Security, and SocioEconomic Conditions and

U.S. Relations.” Congressional Research Service, August 7, 2014.

Werner, Marion. Global Displacements : The Making of Uneven Development in the

Caribbean. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

Wills, Santiago. “Did Reagan Finance Genocide in Guatemala?” ABC News, May 14, 2013.

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/ronald-reagan-finance-genocide-

guatemala/story?id=19179627.